‘The Valley: Persian Style’ Star Golnesa “GG” Gharachedaghi Says It Was A “Wakeup Call” To Hear Herself Admit To Spending $3,000-$4,000 A Month On Weed: “I Definitely Scaled It Down”

The Persians are in town, and they are here to stay! Shahs of Sunset alum Golnesa “GG” Gharachedaghi and her longtime friend, Tanin Nikpey, are taking on the suburban life in Bravo’s new spinoff, The Valley: Persian Style.

In the first two episodes, fans are given an update on what Gharachedaghi has been up to since Shahs took its final bow in 2021. When we last saw her, she was a new mom to her son, Elijah, who was conceived via sperm donor. Now, Elijah is five years old, and Gharachedaghi is looking to find a new house for the two of them—one that is no less luxurious than the lifestyle she’s grown accustomed to. However, issues with her credit score could pose a threat when it comes to finding something as big and fanciful as she’s looking for. While Gharachedaghi said the talk about her finances was “very expected,” as that’s a common topic of conversation in the Persian culture, she didn’t expect Reza Farahan to bring up her credit report.

With Farahan urging her to tone down some of her spending, it sounds like Gharachedaghi heeded some of his advice. Speaking to her confession that she was spending anywhere from $3,000 to $4,000 a month on marijuana, she told DECIDER, “It’s interesting because at that moment, I had never done the math for it before, so I think I played it down, to be honest with you. It was a definite wakeup call for me to hear myself answer that question.” These days, the reality star said she spends less than $3,000 a month on weed.

With Gharachedaghi describing the drug as her “medicine” to keep her “calm,” Nikpey jokingly chimed in, “She’s saving the world one joint at a time.”

Nikpey, for her part, has been friends with Gharachedaghi and the Shahs gang for more than a decade. Per Gharachedaghi, Nikpey and her husband, Greg Haroutunian, can even be seen in the background at some of their parties. Though, as Gharachedaghi pointed out, it would’ve been “fake” to have the married couple appear on Shahs as they had their lives together, and that show focused more on a “group of friends that liked to party.”

When we caught up with the two women, they revealed whether they had heard from the OG Valley cast, what kind of drama fans can expect from this season, and how they felt about Mercedeh “MJ” Javid filing for divorce from Tommy Feight. Check out the full interview below.

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DECIDER: Congrats on the new show! Has anyone from The Valley reached out to welcome you guys to the franchise? 

TANIN NIKPEY: No one reached out, but actually, one of my friends is a mutual friend between me and Michelle [Saniei], so I actually met her a few weeks ago and she was very, very sweet and gave me some pointers. Yeah, it was very sweet. 

GOLNESA “GG” GHARACHEDAGHI: No, nobody. I think there’s a little bit of this probably intimidation factor. Also, you have to be a little bit jealous to know the Persians are taking over The Valley. I mean, hello. 

GG, when we last saw you on TV, Elijah was just a baby. As far as I’m aware, I believe you were the first Bravo star to take the donor route. Since then, we’ve seen that becoming way less taboo. I know Lala Kent has also done it. What do you think about those following in your footsteps?

GOLNESA: I mean, that’s amazing. I think it’s amazing. I have to give credit where it’s due, I think Andy Cohen was the first on Bravo to go the donor route. Now, I went the sperm donor route. He went with the other donor. It’s great to see that. I think women are becoming more and more independent every single day. And the reality is with independence comes progression. And with progression, we realize we don’t necessarily need a man to meet ends. We work, we boss, and we provide for our children. So I didn’t see anything wrong with it. 

And there’s nothing wrong with it! In the last season of Shahs, you were very anti-monogamy. Do you still hold that same position?

GOLNESA: I think it’s a very rigid sword for me. I’m not necessarily the type to say I don’t want monogamy. I don’t want a man out there cheating and doing all that. I just have a different level of understanding, because if I am asking for a lot of space from a man, I have to understand he has needs, he has desires. And because I’m not an insecure woman, I think emotion is very different than sex. I just see it differently. 

Speaking of relationships, Tanin, you described Greg as your adopted child in the premiere episode, and in the second, we saw you both refer to each other as brother and sister. What’s it been like watching these scenes back?

TANIN: I think it’s just an inside joke that we have, and I don’t think we realized how this might land with everybody else who doesn’t know us. I still stand by that. He is my adopted child in so many ways. Listen, anyone who’s married for a while understands that you become best friends, you become like family. Obviously, we were referring to it in the worst, most dry, sarcastic humor way. 

I feel like there is this conspiracy about a reality TV curse that’s put on married couples entering the Bravo universe. Tanin, is that something you and Greg are aware of? Is it something you talked about going into this?

TANIN: I definitely have been warned about that many times, but we are just we being who we are. So whether there’s cameras or not, that is really, unfortunately, how we act – or fortunately. I think if we are meant to break up, then it was meant to be. And if it’s meant to stay strong and we hold it together, then that’s what’s meant to be. I do think that cameras maybe amplify things, or make you see things more realistically, or see it from a different perspective, where usually you ignore it. But on the other hand, it’s very therapeutic. So it either helps you or breaks you. And I think either way is the right decision. 

GG, your finances have really become a topic of conversation so far this season. I personally was surprised when you said you spend anywhere between $3,000 and $4,000 a month on weed. Was that an exaggeration? 

GOLNESA: It’s interesting because at that moment, I had never done the math for it before, so I think I played it down, to be honest with you. It was a definite wakeup call for me to hear myself answer that question. So I definitely scaled it down. It’s under $3,000 now, I would say, per month. But I mean, listen, it’s my medicine. It’s my psychological medicine, my autoimmune medicine. It heals the world knowing that I’m just calm.

TANIN: She’s saving the world one joint at a time.

GOLNESA: Yeah! I’m doing a service.

Reza, MJ, and even Tommy seem to have had thoughts about your finances in these first couple of episodes. GG, what was your reaction to watching that? 

GOLNESA: What Tommy had to say made no difference in my life. It just means that MJ’s going and telling him some sort of story and he’s going off that dialog. Persians are very intrusive when it comes to money and your business. At the hair salon in Iran, you go there in the morning, you don’t come out till the evening because you’re just sitting there with the ladies talking about everybody in your town. It’s very expected. What I didn’t expect was the credit conversation to be brought up, because Reza had access to that only because I have asked him to be my real estate agent. So that was where things went a little bit like … that’s not in the culture. 

Tanin, you are kind of finding yourself as the middleman between GG and Sky over this ring situation. What was it like to navigate that drama? Did you find yourself picking a side?

GOLNESA: Girl, you better keep watching.

TANIN:  I think that’s the least of my worries, to be honest. I wish those were my problems. I’ll be a middle man at any time if that’s the case. 

GOLNESA: She’s crazy. She’s a Scorpio. 

TANIN: Oh, you’ll see how things unfold and I’ll talk to you afterwards to see who’s crazy. Actually, it’s this one. I think that whole ring situation was interesting because months before, we went to a dinner and she asked me about it. She’s like, “I don’t know why I’m getting my ring back.” I texted Sky because she’s one of my best friends. I was like, “Girl, you got to get this ring.” And then months later, on camera, she tells me, “I still don’t have the ring.” I was like, “Wait, what?” I just needed the ring back. I was like, “Just give it to her.” It was a big, awkward situation to be in, for sure. 

GG, how will we see your friendship with Sky unfold this season?

GOLNESA: I would absolutely love for you to really continue to watch and keep watching every episode twice, because I feel like you learn a new thing each time, because I do. My issue with her was nothing to do with the ring.  I was annoyed. I was very annoyed about it, but that was water under the bridge. Everyone was like, “Why are you just getting over it?” She did bad work. It was things that were stuffed into it. It wasn’t done properly. And on top of that, after nine months and not putting in real diamonds, she was trying to charge me $200. I got over it. There was a lot that went on with that lady. 

Some of the big news to come out of last year was MJ’s decision to file for divorce from Tommy. Were either of you surprised? What were your thoughts?

TANIN: I feel like I was actually still surprised by it, to be honest. I feel like throughout [the show] she was really holding on strong and trying to fix things. So yes, I was still definitely surprised when I saw the news. I just opened my phone and I was like, “Oh, shoot.” I didn’t see it coming. I really didn’t know. But I think as you see the season, you can understand how things unfold. 

GOLNESA: I knew it was going to happen before she even married him. So that’s, you know, an obvious one. I just knew it was something that she had to get to on her own. I think for a while, when you are defending something so hard, you’re not actually in the relationship anymore because you’re just busy defending the relationship. When that ends, you’re forced to face that relationship and all those things that you were defending are surfacing. I think she was at that phase when we began filming and it was sort of like, enough is enough. 

GG, in the preview for Episode 3, you sit down with your ex Dennis, who is now with Mike’s ex Paulina. What has it been like navigating that? And what can you say about Paulina’s accusations? 

I really cannot speak on that vermin, so I will not speak on her. She’s irrelevant from my life and everything. Dennis was my ex 13, 14 years ago. Those 13 years, we’ve been such best friends. We would go on family trips and everything together, so when he jumped into bed a week after we got married with her, it was [something] I never knew that he would be capable of. I was like, “No, not ever.” So, it was very hard for me to meet with him again. But that’s 13 years of being so close to someone and someone who’s my business partner as well. It’s a great business, so I needed to figure things out. 

Speaking of Mike, he is one of the OG Shahs members not returning for this show. GG, I know you two were close throughout the first show. Do you keep in touch with him? 

I stopped being close with Mike around … I don’t know what year it was … it was our Season 4 or something like that when we had a situation and there was never really a full recovery from that. But we have very different outlook on life and very different views. I wish him and his family the absolute best. 

Shifting gears a little bit. Tanin, Greg spoke about the car accident in Episode 2. How does something like that change you? What is it like to open up about that scary time to the world?

TANIN: Even watching it, it takes me all the way back. I got emotional because we kind of block it off when something traumatic happens. When you see the pictures and you’re like, “Oh, that did happen…” I have a completely different perspective on life. I think it makes a lot of things seem so insignificant. I just think it changed me as a person. It actually changed me and Greg because he was there pulling my body out of the car at the time. I think we were in a very playful, just friends kind of dating situation. When this happened, it really changed our relationship and we just looked at it with a much different perspective. 

I have to say, you and Greg are so interesting, and I know you guys have been friends with the crew for more than a decade. Why has it taken so long to get you on TV?

GOLNESA: They’re in the background of all the parties in Shahs of Sunset! 

TANIN: By background, she means it was split second. But yes, maybe a couple of them. I’ve known her for so long, and I felt like for for me, at the time, Shahs was her work and something different. Her and I connect that on a different level. 

GOLNESA: Shahs was very different. It was about a group of friends that like to party and travel. This girl is a COO. She hates me saying that. She’s a COO. She had her life together and she’s business-oriented, so it didn’t match. It would be fake. It would be fake, right? This is about family. It’s about our inner lives. So it works. 

A little bit of a hard pivot, but GG, I can’t let you go without bringing up your OnlyFans! MJ said she can’t really see you fully leaning into the OnlyFans stereotype. What do you think? Is that something you might turn to in the future or are you mainly sticking with feet pics? 

GOLNESA: She’s very much correct. I’m as prude as it comes. Most people don’t expect that because of my personality. I’m very prude. I have gone six years without having sex. I have gone three years without having sex. I wouldn’t be able to show more than lingerie. That’s as far as I go. But I swear to God, of course, they like nudity, but it’s not like that. They just want random pictures sometimes. Like of you just snuggled in your bathrobe or something in your bed. It’s weird! 

TANIN: You should tell them to go to your Instagram and they don’t have to pay. 

What else can the two of you tease about the rest of this season?

TANIN: There is everything. There is drama, but there’s so much depth. There’s so much heart. We all have our own story that can be so relatable and so many things that are unpredictable, even for us. Even as I’m watching it, even the first two episodes, I was like, “Oh, my God, that did happen?” The way things unfold, the way some people grow, some people become more immature, there’s so much that happens between relationships, friendships, work. It’s just everything. So I think it’s really exciting at the end, but it was very nerve wracking for us to go through it. 

GOLNESA: Rookies. She really did say it all. And to just piggyback off of that, you’ll see multiple relationships ending. It’s a tough watch. It’s a tough situation that I personally had to be a part of to witness. It was sad. I think there’s so many rollercoasters in this season and I love that we have straight male energy now because the dynamics shift as well. We get to talk about different types of conversations, different outcomes because of this view and that view and a man and a woman wanting to sleep in separate rooms. These conversations that we don’t have when it’s just with the girls or with your gay best friends. I think people are going to just see so many different sides of all of us. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Valley: Persian Style airs Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. New episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.